The U.S. Constitution: Crisis, Change and Legitimacy

Catalog description

Since its ratification the U.S. Federal Constitution has been a fixed element of the American experience. And yet the meaning Americans attribute to the document - from its structural and rights provisions to its basic ethical project - has been subject to intense debate and change. This class takes an historical approach to explore periods of sustained crisis in the constitutional order - from the founding and the Civil War to the Great Depression and the Civil Rights Movement. In the process, special attention will be paid to the techniques of constitutional interpretation and judicial doctrine as well as to constitutional struggle outside the judiciary. We will also assess broader questions of inclusion, democratic legitimacy, and institutional design. The course will end by engaging with the relationship between the present and those earlier periods of crisis. (GOVT-AM, GOVT-PT)